Chapter Twenty-One

Back in the tiny village of St. Fleur, Tristan David Julien Georges, Heir to the Throne, found it impossible to sleep.

He had given up trying and abandoned the small bed that belonged to Charlotte; the woman who had cared for him so tenderly day after day and never once flinched in her duties, no matter how distressing they might have been. She had become so much more to him than a nurse, or even a friend. She had become the woman he longed for, body and soul.

I’m in love, he thought. Who would ever have believed me capable of it?

Not only did he worry she would decide she didn’t want everything that came with him—especially since, with any luck, she had now seen the palace and a hint of the life that accompanied it—he worried that he’d never see her again at all. The mission he had sent her and Thomas on was fraught with danger, and their risk of ending up in the dungeon, or worse, was considerable.

He could only rely on Charlotte’s intelligence, Thomas’s strength and determination to protect her, and their ability to reach the Queen with proof that he lived.

“I can’t sleep, either, Your Highness.” Julien looked up and saw Walter ambling toward his position. “May I join you?”

“Of course, sir. This is your home, I am but a grateful guest here.”

“The future king, calling me ‘sir’.” Walter shook his head as he moved a chair closer to the hearth and sat down beside the young man. He analyzed Julien’s face in the firelight. “You’re really coming along now, healing up well. I have no doubt you’ll have the strength to ride if you set your mind to it and can manage a horse with the one arm, though you won’t be able to ride very well and be expected to hold a sword if…” Walter’s voice failed. He didn’t want to consider that the Prince would be facing such danger any time soon, because that meant Charlotte and Thomas would be facing it, too. Though, perhaps, they already had been subject to worse on their critical journey.

“How much longer do you think it will be until they return?” Walter asked.

“If things went according to plan, they are hopefully on their way now,” Julien replied, staring into the flames and only seeing one thing there: Charlotte’s image, rising in the smoke. Everywhere he looked, it seemed, he saw her face. “God willing, they are safe.”

“I worry for them, too,” Walter added. “Especially Charlotte. She does run headlong into things without thinking sometimes, and that could get her into a lot of trouble when trying to stick to a plan.”

“It aids her though in the art of improvisation,” Julien replied. “Her ability to think quickly and respond to any situation at hand has been a great aid in my getting well.”

“I agree, no one else could have done a better job, given the circumstances.”

“Given any circumstances, I believe she was the kindest and best nurse any man could hope for.” Julien tilted his head now toward the old man. “Sir, if I may speak to you a moment. About Charlotte.”

“Hmm.” Walter shifted in his seat and folded his arms, as any father suspicious of what he was about to hear from a young man regarding his daughter would do. “What about her?”

“I… I’m… I’ve…” Julien actually found himself stammering. “I’ve fallen in love with her, sir.”

A gentle smile spread across Walter’s face. “And why wouldn’t you? You have seen her as she is, plainly, before you. You have seen her tired and dirty and angry and frustrated.” The smile spread into a grin accompanied by a wistful look in his eyes. “She does so remind me of her mother at that age. I first saw her mother arguing with a local merchant about the price of a piece of cloth she needed to make a dress from. I was just walking through the marketplace and I saw her standing there and heard her raving on so...” His eyes grew sorrowful. “I never thought the day would come I would see that fire in her so diminished.”

“I will be able to secure the best possible medical care and assistance for your wife, sir, once I am back where I belong,” Julien promised, then he hurried to add, “Not that you haven’t taken care of her, so has Charlotte. It’s just that an aide, and someone to help lessen the burden—to perhaps provide some form medicine yet untried to strengthen her...”

“My wife’s time is waning, Your Highness. This I know and it grieves me highly. There is nothing I can do to add length to her days. But if there is anything you could do to add comfort to her hours, I would be most indebted to you.”

“Nonsense. No one could be more indebted to you and your family than I am.”

“That brings me to a question, Your Highness.”

“Please, sir, call me Julien.”

“Only, sir, if you will call me Walter.”

Julien smiled. “It is settled. What, Walter, is your question for me?”

“Are you certain it is love you feel for Charlotte and not merely gratitude? Have you not simply grown accustomed to her company, and will miss it when you return to the palace, as one would miss any friend they cared for?”

“My feelings for Charlotte run far deeper than gratitude or friendship, no matter how thankful I may be for all she has done,” Julien insisted. “She is fiery, that is certain, but she is also sweet and gentle. She is beautiful beyond her physical appearance, though do not get me wrong, her physical appearance is most pleasing.”

“Funny you should mention that, when you so easily overlooked her at the grand ball and she came home dejected; feeling like the kingdom’s queen of the ugly ducks.”

“Sir, I swear to you, I never even saw Charlotte that night. Everything was orchestrated. Planned in advance, this pairing with the young woman from the countryside was no accident. Favors were owed to the family because of acts of her late father, and upon hearing of her situation at home, I easily chose her of the three daughters in the family who were thrust at me.”

“No doubt she was also the prettiest.”

Julien’s cheeks burned. “She is lovely to look at, it is true.”

“And you are betrothed to her. What happens, then, when you return? Are you still not expected to marry the girl, and does she not have feelings for you? You must be under obligation, Julien, regardless of how you may feel about my daughter.”

“Renee—that is the girl’s rightful name—and I share no bond of emotional communion or of any other sort. We have spent but the few minutes that one evening alone together, the rest of our time has been supervised, chaperoned, and highly directed. In the short time I have had to speak with her, we have come to the realization we have nothing in common in the way of interests; and in truth, sir, I doubt she could even bring herself to look upon me the way I am now. She was… rather keen on my previous appearance.”

“I see.” Walter leaned back in the rocking chair and it creaked against the aging wooden floorboards. “So, you see no impediment to that betrothal being annulled and your intentions to my daughter being seen as publicly honorable?”

“Indeed, sir. Any obligation Renee had to me dissolved with the reported news of my death; and I would certainly never do anything to shame your daughter by suggesting an improper union.”

“So, then. You say you are in love with my daughter. What exactly are your intentions toward her?”

“I aim to make her my queen, sir. If she will have me.”

“You love her that much?”

“I do, in truth, sir. I swear it here and now to you.”

Walter sighed, worried. “And what if she does not return your affections? Would you command the union take place?” He regretted the words the moment he spoke them, and looked at Julien apologetically. He knew the young man better by this point; he would never do such a thing. The response he got from Julien was not the one he was expecting, though it delighted him.

Julien laughed softly. “Do you think it would be possible to force Charlotte to ever do anything she did not want?”

Walter laughed out loud now, though he quickly silenced himself out of fear of waking his wife from the precious few hours of sleep a night she was able to get with the pain she was always in. “I think not. You have indeed come to know my daughter’s soul.”

“I have, and I love that soul more dearly than my own,” Julien declared, looking Walter straight in the eye. “I ask your permission to propose marriage to her upon my first opportunity. Will you give it?”

Walter sighed deeply. “My daughter, the queen.” He shook his head. “I can envision that. A life of service would be nothing new to her.” He paused. “There is only one other matter that troubles me, however, and it’s one that certainly could not have escaped your attention, Julien.”

Julien knew what was coming but simply listened as Walter added the name to the conversation he’d been expecting to hear at any moment.

“There’s Thomas.”

* * *

“Thomas, he’s trying to get away again!” Charlotte struggled to control Duke Frederick’s horse as they tried to lead the lot of animals to drink.

Thomas took the reins and glared at the horse. “Do not be making trouble, sir, or you shall have to answer to me.” Something in his tone reached the animal, and, with a final head shake of protest, it settled into drinking from the stream with the others.

“I worry we are not making quick enough progress in our travels,” Charlotte confided, as she watched Renee take a drink from the stream some ways away. “She is slowing us down.”

“I know,” Thomas replied regretfully. “What is worse, I think she is distracted.” He looked embarrassed as Charlotte assessed his visage in the moonlight.

“She has taken to you, to be sure.”

Thomas’s jaw set and he looked up into the distant sky. “If she has any interest, she will find herself disappointed.”

“Maybe you should give her some time, and a chance, Thomas.”

“I don’t want to give her a chance,” Thomas snapped. “I don’t want to give anyone a chance but you.” He stepped away, leading the first of the horses with him and securing it to a tree so he could gather the others and they could prepare to return to their travels.

Charlotte looked up into the same sky Thomas had just been analyzing, and wondered what it was exactly he saw there. Whatever it was, she was certain he envisioned an entirely different universe of stars than she.

Her world revolved around one heart now, and it was, sadly, not the one that beat inside Thomas’s chest. She mourned for a moment over it all; for there had been a time when she believed she would inevitably end up as the blacksmith’s wife, raising a brood in the small village where they had both been born. Secretly, though, she had wondered if she could be enough for him, alone, or if his disappointment over not being able to pursue the knighthood would eat at him day by day. Make him angry, and bitter, and cause him to eventually detest the very life he was so certain he wanted now.

She hoped that somehow, new opportunities would open up for him in the days ahead; things he had yet to imagine. She was certain that she could be easily enough forgotten if only he realized how much more there could be to life than being just a husband and father to his childhood love.

That is what she was rightfully called, she realized, and she grieved for the innocent dreams she’d had, even after the ball; before they’d found Julien next to death in that pool of water and carried him home to her father.

She wondered what he was doing now—if he was thinking of her. She found her throat stinging with the pain of unshed tears. Here, she rode alongside the woman who would surely still be his bride… what was she doing, nursing this childish infatuation? Surely his feelings were only those of a grateful patient to their nurse, and with time he would understand that.

“Charlotte!” Thomas growled, keeping his voice low but his tone sharp. “We ride.”

“Sorry.” She looked at him guiltily as she climbed back onto her borrowed horse, though she didn’t know what, exactly, it was she had to feel guilty for. It wasn’t like she had ever told Thomas she loved him when she didn’t; she’d never told him anything of the sort at all, and when he professed his love for her in the form of that powerful kiss she did the only thing she could do: she ran away as quickly as possible.

“How much farther have we to go?” Renee asked, shifting uncomfortably in her saddle. “The way is difficult.”

“That is because we are riding through the forest to save time,” Thomas explained. “Taking the road would be more direct, but would leave us exposed to danger once the Duke awakens and sends his forces out after us.”

“What of the dangers of the forest?”

“Those are less, I believe, than we would be facing… from… ” Thomas stopped, realizing it was not Renee who had asked the question.

He looked up.

A man was dangling from a tree branch, sword extended toward Thomas. “Those are lovely horses ye are ridin’. I’m afraid we’ll have to be liberating them from you.” The man dropped from the tree to the ground, and suddenly, Thomas, Charlotte, and Renee were surrounded by a sizeable group of very dangerous men.